UK and US data centres now consume around 6% of national electricity

Data centres in both the UK and US now consume roughly 6% of each country’s electricity supply, according to a report by think tank the International Data Centre Authority (IDCA).

The rapid growth in the number of data centres in countries across the world, driven by the AI boom, has seen electricity demands grow. This is adding pressure to local grids and, in some instances, has seen household electricity prices rise. 

The 2026 Global Data Centre Report, published by the IDCA, aims to provide a comprehensive view of the global data centre landscape, covering energy consumption, connectivity, security and the rise of AI-driven infrastructure.

Data centres are energy guzzlers, requiring a significant amount of electricity for computation. According to figures from the report, their total power footprint has grown by 36% in just two years. These facilities now account for 2% of global electricity consumption, up from 1.7% in 2024 and 1.9% in mid-2025.

The US has more data centres than any other country, accounting for 43% of all electricity consumed by data centres worldwide. 

These US-based data centres consume 29.2GW of electricity, equivalent to 6% of the country’s total electricity demand.

The world’s other top five countries with the highest data centre electricity demand include:

• China – 8.5GW or 0.8% of the nation’s electricity demand
• Germany – 5.5GW or 9.5% of the nation’s electricity demand
• UK – 2.0GW or 5.8% of the nation’s electricity demand
• Japan – 1.7GW or 1.5% of the nation’s electricity demand.

The report warns that “significant community and political pushback starts to occur in nations once their data centre footprints have reached the 5% consumption level of national grids”.

These figures align with recent estimates by the International Energy Association, which expects electricity consumption from data centres to double by 2030, while AI-specific demand is expected to triple in that time. Its analysis reveals that electricity demand from data centres rose by 17% in 2025, far outpacing the 3% growth in overall global electricity demand. 

In March 2026, six non-governmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth and Foxglove, wrote to UK technology secretary Liz Kendall warning that the soaring electricity demand from new AI data centres could drive up the UK’s carbon emissions. 

Amid these warnings, the drive to build data centres is accelerating at pace. Just last week, energy firm Centrica confirmed that it has purchased an 850MW gas plant in South Wales in an area tipped to become a data centre hotspot in the coming years.

In the E+T May/June issue, we included a feature that asks: do we have enough resources – power, products and people – to supply this new fleet of AI data centres?